The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-06-17
WHAT OLD SOLDIERS THINK OF 1T.


WHAT OLD SOLDIERS THINK OF 1T.
Condemnation of CIeveIand's Infamous Or
der-Protests from Indiana Soldiers.
President Cevelands extraordinary and as
founding order respecting the rebel bunting in
the War Department at Washington, as the
news becomes more and more diffused meets
with warmer wrath and more vigorous denun-
citation. 1t was the general subject of
versation yesterday. not only among the veterans
of the late war, but among all classes of citizens,
the sentiment being unanimously against Presi-
dent Cleveland.
'It is a damnable and infamous outrage" ex-
claimed Gen. George F. McGinns, who went
into the army Democrat, anG came out of it
with respect for those of that party who
mained behind to hinder and obstruct the
progress of the war. mir. Cleveland is
pie Democrat He would toady to the South
the same as the Democrats of the North did to
Shareholders before the war. Congress ought to
have something to say in this flag matter. The
President certainly has no right to give away
public property.
81 have a rebel flag at Danville," said
Capt Warren O'Haver, of the Twentieth Indi-
ana. captured at the island of Chicamaconuko,
in North Carolina 1t was made for and pre-
ladies of some little town in that State. I've
forgotten the name. / don't think that flag can
be taken on Mr. Cleveand's order"
General Fairchild about expresses my views"
said Maj. James r. Ross, ''as doubt he does
of every soldier who fought in the Northern
army / don't believe the President has any
authority under the law to do anything of the
kind. any more than to turn out SO much money
TO them. He has done q very foolish thing
politically, for he had the South before as solid
as Iced be- II will ruin him in the North"
'sIt is enough to make the dead Union soldiers
all over the South and in the North turn in their
graves" remarked j. E. Heiskell, past COM
Inander of George Il Thomas Post. G. A r.
..Politically, it viii be death for Mr.. Cleveland
General Grant once remarked. Give the Demo
cratic party rope enough. and it will hang it.
rbosa M aid Is gaoa
the emblems of an overthrown Confederacy. ard
the Southern people now say they are glad it
was overthrown- Those rebel flags are not the
property of any State now in the Union. They
were the property of confederacy, and, if the
property of any State. would be of the States
that captured them. They really belong to the
general government, and the President has no
right to dis pose of them. There were sixty bat
tle-fags captured by our division Custer's and
towards the close of the war, when most of
them were taken, the captors were given leave
of absence-a furlough of thirty days or more
to take the flags to Washington and deliver
them to the Secretary of War. Gold medals
were presented to the captors of those flags l
suppose it will be in order to take those
gold medals away from the brave fellows and
make them their widows and orphans pay
back to the government the pay they received
for the time they absent from duty"
Those flags" said Augustn Boyce, whose
right arm, shattered by rebel bullet, is short
ened and almost useless, If they are intended
to teach anything teach nothing but treason. If
they returned to the South to be shown
there it will be to exalt treason and place i.
level with loyalty. That all flags are to be re-
turned to the States is to place the rebel en-
bem level with the flag of our country. 1t
in n nj aft in n
said the Southern cause was still alive. These
flags will be placed in their State captols to
teach the youth that 1t is no disgrace, but an
honor and a glory, to have been in rebellion
against the government of the United States"
II think the course of the President uuau-
thorlzed" said Col. Henry Jordan, of Green
CASTLE possibly in direct violation of law as the
property is not bis to dispose of. II returned
they will be worshped as they were at the New
Orleans exposition There is great indignation
among all the soldiers L have talked with and
have met many. There a proposition a few
years ago return the flag that my regiment
the Seventeenth Indiana, captured of Terry's
Texas Rangers-I was not with the regiment
when the capture was made-and there was
end to the indignation that came up from the
boys from all parts OF the country wherever they
were, aud they have greatly scattered since the
That was f.reat capture Terry's Rang
ers were as excellent horsemen as Msrmeduke's,
while the Seventeenth were simply mounted in
fantry and naturally rather awkward. Terrys
Rangers were the same fellows who we're SO
peppered earlier in the war by the Thirty second
dofmaD
another flag rear Rome Ga. which had been the
property of the Augusta Guards. / think
movement to return those flags to the South
would be another call to arms to the surviving
members of the regiment"
Yesterday afternoon a petition addressed to
Governor Gray was circulated and received
many signatures. Among the names heading
the long list were those of Gen. Fred knefler,
Gen. Geo. F. McGiuns. Gen. Robt S Foster,
Col. Henry Jordan. j. n. Greene, Capt c. w.
Brouse, Robert, e. Smith, ect The petition
reads as follows:
To Isaac p. Gray, Governor of Indiana:
Sir-In common with all the loyal citizens of the
North we have heard with profound astonshment, of
ing the flags in the custody of the War Department
be returned to the respective States in which the
iments which bore them organized We have
long believed and still believe that the late rebel
so-called confederate government extinct in all
its departments. If right in this supposition
it is difficult understand how such extinct govern
ment have any agents representatives TO
ceive the embens Of which it is pro-
posed to return to them.
1t occurs to us that this effort to make the present
Governors of the Southern States the agents of de-
funct rebel government is impeachment of their
loyalty the federal Union and is III fact. the first
distinct recognition of the Southern Contederacy that
has ever ernanated from the national gov We
bear malice toward the people of the South sud it
is purpose to insult them by any unnecessary
display of the trophies of the for the
ton of the Union. But these captured rebel flags
are valuable historical relics. They the evil
dence have of the patriotism of the loyal soldiers
of the late The capture of each of them is
story full of interest to the friends and relatives of
the csptors, story which be best kept alive by
exhibition of the trophy itself. They borne
home in the North, and their folds in many in
stances stained by the blood of the gallant boys in
blue wLo captured them
For these reasons protest against the return of
the confederate flags in the custody of this State
the Governors of the Southern States and we beg
to remind you further that these flags placed in
the custody of the State for preservation and not for